High Heels and Lip Gloss

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Hey are you ok?" asks Jake.

I jerk my head up. Where are we again?

Oh yeah.

We're sitting in a booth in an ice cream parlor.

A large sundae smothered with carmel sauce, hot fudge, nuts and cherries sits in front of me, untouched.

I vaguely remember Jake ordering it for me.

I don't remember, however, saying thank you.

I'm such a great girlfriend, aren't I?

"Yeah, thanks!" I say with forced enthusiasm, pushing a large bite of ice cream down my throat.

I repeat this until I have a horrible brain freeze and have to stop to push my thumb to the roof of my throat.

"Ok, what's up? You haven't said more than five words to me since we went to see Patricia."

I can't deny that. When I'm troubled, I don't talk to anyone, and if I do, it's only a one to two word answer.

"What exactly did you two talk about anyways?"

I've been dreading this question. I always knew it was coming, but never figured out what I would say to him.

How about the truth?

I could.

There's nothing holding me back.

"Well, here goes nothing," I think.

"She told me that she was sorry about Sophie dying."

Ok, that's not lying. It's not the whole truth but it's a start.

"Oh. I'm sorry," he says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"About Sophie! I never really said I was sorry about that, or showed sympathy for you."

"Are you kidding? I've barely left your side this whole week!"

"Yeah, but that's what all couples do. They do everything with each other."

"She also said she wanted to be friends again," I blurt out, wanting to change the subject.

Well it worked.

Jake stares at me, mouth hanging open, a bit of melted ice cream making its way out of his mouth. His mouth closes and he swallows.

"I thought she hated you. Me. Us, you know like a couple," he says.

"Oh she did. But no one can stay mad at someone forever," I say.

"How would you know? You love everybody," says Jake with an amused grin.

"Because I used to hate you. For stealing my best friend away," I say.

It's true. When Patricia and Jake were together, yes I was mad at Patricia, but I was frustrated with Jake for stealing her away from me.

"Really? Wait a minute, were you the one who left that note inside my desk? The one about how I was a jerk and how..." he stops.

Ok, maybe "frustrated" is too light of a word.

"What? No....."

He raises an eyebrow.

"Ok, yes it was me. But I didn't really hate you but I just got tired of hearing how wonderful you were and I got left in the dust."

"So... you got jealous?" 

"No. Yes. Whatever! Just focus on the question!"

Jake's eyes narrow. "I don't trust her. You know that. But it's you she's wanting to be friends with, right?"

"I think so. She said she knew it was going to take a while for us to earn her trust back."

"Us?"

"Yeah."

"So, let me get this straight. Your ex-best friend/my ex-girlfriend wants to be best friends again with both of us."

"That's right. I think," I say.

Jake sighs. "I just hope she doesn't expect us to be "the three best friends that anyone could have,"" he says.

I smile a bit. "Wait, so you're okay with it?"

"Yes. . . but I still don't trust her."

"Me either," I admit. "But hey, what can we lose? If she's lying about it we can just drop the whole thing. She's the one who brought it up, not us," I point out.

"Very true."

I grin and fall back against my seat, like a heavy weight has just been lifted off my shoulders.

Time to talk to Patricia.